2012 Tales: You can’t control the wind.

When I relaunched Upward Media shortly before the start of last year, I made a big deal about a particular client that had been the lynchpin of my own change of heart just six months before. Meeting with them was like turning a corner and running smack into exactly what I wanted to do with my life. Not that I wanted to get in the business they were in, but I suddenly realized that I wanted to focus on helping small businesses and not-for-profits and do work that matters. It was a real lightbulb moment for me. As I was watching this client who had inspired me so greatly, I saw their own business grow, gaining new opportunities. In just a year, it really seemed like they were on an upward trajectory to be something big.

Then, blast it all, they quit.

It kind of came out of the blue for me, as I’ll bet it did for a lot of others. They sold their interest in the company to their partners, which included the blog name they’d become so popular with, and went home, citing “trouble in paradise” and a few other somewhat vague terms. Although they assured me I hadn’t anything to do with the decision, I was kinda shocked – it really seemed like they were going full-speed ahead into the rest of their life, and just like that, we were done. I lost them as a client, which not only meant a loss of recurring income, but the loss of a client who had been one of the most influential characters in my life to that point, even if they weren’t fully aware of it.

This sudden jolt helped me realized that a dream and a vision can long outlast the people involved. After getting over the initial surprise, I had to ask myself if anything was different about me. Well, actually yes, there was – I was a client shorter than before. And…that was all. I was sad to see them go, but I had no intention of giving up my newfound calling of being a blessing to small biz and NFPs everywhere. And here we are, nearing the end of the first fully profitable year of UpM and we’re still here. Thanks to the path this client carved for me, we have no intention of quitting this ballgame anytime soon.